Konta relishes a good fight

BRITISH No 1 Johanna Konta described her gruelling two-hour battle with Carla Suarez Navarro in the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open as “a lot of fun” after making it to the quarter-final.

Konta toughed it out and was a 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), winner in 129 minutes to boost her chances of making the WTA Finals next month.

With only the top eight players in the Road to Singapore qualifying, Konta, in 10th, cut the deficit on eighth-placed Suarez Navarro to 246 points in a match that could have gone either way.

“It definitely was a lot of fun,” she said. “I think I would be in the wrong profession if I didn’t desire to be a part of such battles.”

Next up is a quarterfinal clash with Petra Kvitova, who spent three hours 20 minutes on court in getting past world No.1 Angelique Kerber.

Meanwhile, the men’s world No.1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the China Open in Beijing next week due to an ongoing elbow injury.